Death Flower
by Hoshi-Zuuri
Summary: An infectious disease sweeps through Konoha, killing all who it touches. Will the cure be found in time to save them?
1. 00 Poison Honey

**A/N:** Hey, look, another on-hold Naruto fanfic! Seriously. I started this last year and still haven't been able to think of anything good to continue with. I've got the prologue and Chapter 1 done, but that's it. =____= If anyone wants to help me, I'd love to hear your ideas! Anyway, Ureshii, Ryoto, Kama, Yumi, and a few others belong to Hyugahealer3. Saki, her team, and some of the demon paraphernalia I've got going belongs to me. PERMISSION IS REQUIRED TO USE THEM unless you are HH3. Yeah. Anyway, go ahead and read and see what you think! OH BY THE BY, Kanahoza is just a random town I made up, so it has no real significance other than to set the stage of the story. *nods*

* * *

The small village of Kanahoza had a legend that when a person died, it would rain. On that day, the town flooded.

It didn't make any sense, this illness that nobody could find a cure for. Why was it so bad? It started off just like a minor cold did, but quickly moved to something else.

Nobody, not even the legendary Princess Tsunade, knew the cure. In fact, the princess had actually gotten sick herself...

~*Flashback*~  
_  
It rained that day. Tsunade was little more than a young girl, old enough to help in the war but young enough not to fully grasp the situation. As she lay on her back in the muddy trench, watching the rain fall down on to her fevered cheeks, Tsunade came to the realization that she was going to die here. Tsunade rolled her head to her left, where a neat, muddy row of bodies stretched as far as her tired and fuzzy eyes could see._

_Plip..._

_Plip..._

_Plip..._

_"Nawaki," Tsunade murmured to herself. She was really going to die here, wasn't she?_

_Suddenly, a cloaked figure emerged from the gloom. He at first seemed to float on top of the ground, but as he got closer, footsteps became visible. And heard, too. The mysterious figure was wearing thick black boots, brown cloak, hood up, with a red cross sewn over the breast. He had a kind, worn face and a gentle smile. He carried a needle or serum in his right hand._

_Tsunade looked at him, untrusting. "It'll hurt," the girl muttered. "Whatever you have won't work. It'll just make me worse, and it'll hurt too."  
_  
_The man gave her a reassuring smile. "I promise this time won't hurt."_

_Tsunade gave a derisive snort. "That's what they said the last time.... and the time before that.... And the time before that.... And the time before that, too."_

_Her companion gave a sigh. "Yes, well, I don't belong to that medical corps. As a matter of fact, I don't belong to any medical corps, so I'm telling you the truth."_

_Tsunade stared at the man in disbeleif. "Then how do you know this works?"_

_He gave her a smile. "It's been tested before being used, unlike those other so-called 'antidotes.' I know it works. I've used it before."_

_He raised the needle up to her view. It was filled with a beautiful amber liquid, like honey, yet not as sluggish or sticky. Gently,the manlifted up her arm, and in one swift movement, delivered the antidote._

_Tsunade gasped. At first it was a searing pain, but that vanished as soon as it had come. In its place was a blissful coolness that spread across her body, bringing much-needed relief with it, rain on dry land. When the sensation was over, Tsunade realized that she had been completely cured. There was no trace, no record, even,of any illness anywhere in her body._

_Turning back to thank the mysterious man, she saw that he had vanished without a trace, leaving nothing behind, not even footprints._  
_As Tsunade looked in vain, the young girl realized the man had left something behind: a single word, scrawled in the mud._

_Heal._

~*End Flashback*~

To this day, the woman known as either Princess Tsunade or Lady Tsunade has never contracted any illness more serious than a bad stomach bug.

But the village of Kanahoza met a much different fate. Each and every one of them succumbed to the sickness, from the youngest baby to the oldest elder. It had always started out the same: light fever, runny and/or stuffy nose, and light cough. After a few days, however, the illness began to get serious. The fever rose drastically high, and the person was all but paralyzed. The person's body would slowly begin to shut down. In the final stages of the disease, the inflicted's skin would have a distinct gray pallor, while the face would still be flushed with fever. When the person died, a casual observer would note that sparkly rose petals seemed to come out of the inflicted's mouth, then vanish as they floated higher.

Why? They wondered, as more and more villagers fell to the illness's rampage. Have we been so bad that we are being punished this severely?

Why?

WHY?

Why...?

Why...

The second Saki stood at the gates of the flooded valley village, her instincts told her something was wrong. There were no sounds save for the sloshing of the water from the freak storm that had blown in all day yesterday, vanishing as quickly as it had come.

As Saki waded through the water with her team, she came to the conclusion that something was very wrong. All of the villagers couldn't have been killed by the flood, could they? After all, that was the only way to explain the silence but for the absurd notion that the villagers had already evacuated, which hadn't happened because an evacuation that size, despite the fact that the town only had about 1000 people, would have had to be seen by someone. And it hadn't.

Saki pulled open a door to one of the houses after clambering on to the raised platform that served both as flood protection and porch. The 15-year-old girl slowly walked through the house, nearly screaming when she found the first open-eyed corpse. It was fresh, no doubt, but there was no water damage, no _nothing _on the body in terms of damage. In fact, there was no clue to how the person had died, save for the lingering smell of sickness.

"Shu, Rin, Yoko!" Saki called. Her team was at her side in an instant. Together they quickly explored the rest of the town, and confirmed what Saki had suspected. Every single person was dead, all from the same disease that had haunted this town.

"Shu, go get Lady Tsunade. Now. Tell her that we have an infectious emergency the size of Orochimaru in our hands."

_'A thousand people! What sickness could wipe out a _**_thousand_**_ people on approximately the same day?'_


	2. 01 Poison Mushroom

**A/N:** Chapter one. Oh, by the by, when I meant stuck, I don't mean that I can't think of a plot. I mean that I have the plot all nicely lined up, but all the details are hiding in some dark, dusty corner of my mind and aren't coming out no matter how much I beg or give them candy. Sigh. Once again, Saki and her team are my Naruto OC's and permission is required to use them. Yup. Tsunade does not belong to me, however. She belongs to herself. Uh. Yeah. Can't think of anything else to put.

**Disclaimer:** I forgot to put a disclaimer in the prologue. Whoops. Anyway, all Naruto stuff belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and his affiliates, not to me.

* * *

The fifth Hokage was in big trouble.

She had recognized it instantly: the gray pallor of the victims, the almost-sweet smell left over in the air from the disease. Her mind flashed to that mysterious man with that cure... She was sure that she was immune now, but the others... The _entire village _could die because of her and the four people standing here with her.

"Quarantine the village," Tsunade barked.

Instantly, Saki and her squad shimmered out of sight.

Sighing, Tsunade sat down on a nearby stump to think. She was positive that the five of them had picked up the illness while they were exploring the village. She was also positive that she herself was immune to whatever it was. Tsunade knew that even if she was immune, she could still be a carrier for the disease and pass it on into the village... And as for Saki, Shu, Rin, and Yoko? Nobody was immune except her, not even the most powerful ninja in the world.

All of a sudden, explosions rocked the surrounding area, accompanied by whoops of excitement and danger. Tsunade jumped, pulling out a kunai before she realized what had just happened. Muttering curses under her breath, the blonde Sannin sat back down after tucking her knife securely away.

When Tsunade had calmed down enough to think, she once again pondered what to do. It would be easy enough to send Saki and her team away on a long mission involving wilderness, but what about her? She couldn't just up and leave the village; she was the Hokage, for Madara's sake!

What to do, what to do?

Tsunade carefully considered her options, having almost found a solution when another bad memory came back to her. The Sannin sighed. Any contact with the village of any form –except for smoke signaling, but that would be just idiotic- could and most likely would spread the disease there. Tsunade was stuck. Her choices were down to three now.

1. She could just leave the village with no trace of where she had gone or why, or

2. She could smoke-signal the village explaining why she had to leave and hope that someone saw, or

3. She could just go back to the village and risk the 99.999…% chance that it would spread there.

Tsunade groaned in frustration. None of the choices were any good… This was _so_ idiotic. Well, she was the Hokage, after all. It was up to her to solve this problem before anyone got hurt… Or in this case, sick.

More explosions, this time closer and more violent. The ground trembled enough to rudely shake the troubled Sannin from her thoughts. This time, Tsunade yelled curses instead of muttering them under her breath. _'What on Earth are those four up to?' _Tsunade wondered. _'I asked them to quarantine the village, not blow it up!'_

A few minutes later, the team was standing in front of Lady Tsunade, cheeks flushed and eyes bright. The much-older woman sighed. "Mission accomplished, Lady Tsunade! The village had been quarantined!" Saki chirped, blissfully unaware of the difficult choices swirling like dark storm clouds in her superior's mind.

Shu added his information with the same bright tone as his sensei. "Yeah! We set off a bunch of bombs, courtesy of Yoko-" Here Yoko gave an overdramatic bow. "-And dressed the whole area up to look like a minefield. We even put a poison tent over and added some smoke to get the poison mine effect, so nobody will even think about wanting to go in there!"

Tsunade's eyebrow twitched. "Well, that's nice…." Tsunade slipped back into her reverie, only to be jolted back into the real world when she realized that Saki and the others were still standing there. "Uh… Can I help you?" Tsunade inquired.

"What next?" Shy Rin enquired. "Are we done here? Should we go ba-"

"NO!" Tsunade shouted, loud enough that a deaf old granny in Konoha had probably heard her yell. Shu and Saki jumped, Yoko looked mildly surprised and even a little startled, and poor Rin cringed and retreated behind her 15-year-old leader.

Trying to speak with a calm and reassuring voice (and probably failing miserably), Tsunade repeated, "No. You don't need to go back to the village just yet. I need you to… To…"

Tsunade resisted the urge to scratch her head in thought.

"To scout around the area. If you find anyone who knows about the true fate of these poor souls bring them to me. Stay hidden and let them come to you. If they go down into another village come and let me know immediately."

Saki nodded and pried Rin off of her. "Will do," the brown-haired Jounin replied. Her team vanished for the second time, leaving Tsunade alone once more. The elder woman sighed, resuming her sitting position on the tree stump.

What to do, what to do?

Sighing, Tsunade stretched luxuriously. Her dilemma was not the common one you'd find in the average, day-to-day Hokage Grand List of Dilemmas. This was a problem that could decide the fate of the entire village.

Talk about pressure.

_'Maybe Katsuyu would have some helpful suggestions… But are giant slugs immune? Heck, is _anything _immune to this illness?' _

Well, another dead end…

Tsunade took a close look at her surroundings in the vain, unrealistic hope that there would be some sort of clue hidden there to jumpstart her brain.

The forest was quiet. A slight breeze ruffled the leaves on the massive deciduous trees. The wind caught a few of the leaves, causing them to perform a beautiful dance in midair; a special production just for her.

One of the leaves slowly drifted down towards Tsunade's face. It was in the shape of an arrow, stem perfectly centered. The leaf gently spiraled downward to land on Tsunade's forehead.

_'Konoha…'_

The leaf stuck to Tsunade's skin for a moment before it slipped off. Tsunade's eyes were fixated on the leaf as it slowly drifted towards the forest floor. It was just about to land on the floor, to be stuck there until it decomposed, but the breeze kicked in at the last second, picking up the leaf until it spiraled up out of sight in the higher branches of the trees.

All at once, a voice sounded in Tsunade's head, calm, serene, but resonating with power:

**Hidden Leaves spiraling down**

**Almost do they hit the ground**

**But a Kamikaze lifts them up again**

_'What the hell- Who- What- How- My head! They- It- Whatever it was, it was in my head!' _Tsunade's thoughts swirled around in confused agitation. _'And that weird word, Kama- Komi- whatever, but it wasn't in this language! Am I going insane or something?'_

Tsunade gave a half-snort, half-growl and flopped down off the stump onto her back. The leaves spiraling overhead reminded her of the leaf engraved on the great doors leading into the village of Konoha.

_'Konoha…'_

The wind ruffled the leaves, creating a reassuring wsh-wsh sound.

_'I have to do what's best for Konoha.'_

Nawaki's and Dan's faces appeared unbidden before her eyes. Tsunade sighed and pushed herself up off the slightly damp earth. The blonde Sannin had heard of people randomly receiving information from their subconscious, but that voice was definitely not her subconscious. Even stranger, the message was some sort of riddle…

Riddles.

Tsunade sighed again. She had enough on her mind already to be worrying about cryptic messages.

Now, what was she going to do about her little pathogenic problem?

***

30 minutes later, Tsunade had decided. Se would risk going back to Konoha even if it meant she spread the disease there. She was the Hokage, and her village needed her. But Tsunade wasn't just going to sit back and do nothing about the illness that had once claimed so many lives. She, Lady Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage of Konohagakure, was going to find a cure. Tsunade was going to put a stop to this disease, once and for all. She wasn't going to stand by and watch it sweep across the world like it had done before. _'No, this time, when the illness fades, it will be gone forever!'_

~*~*~*~

Miles away, a toxic wasteland existed. It was filled with thousands of plants that released a poisonous miasma of toxic spores that could rot a person's lungs in five minutes without a mask. The spores could even stick to bare skin and take root there. Nothing could survive without protective precautions, except the great armored insects of the deep forest.

However, the insects were no longer living in this part of the forest. A few hundred years ago, a great migration had started, beginning first with the majestic Ohmu. When these magnificent creatures had left the forest, most of the other great insects had proceeded to follow. Even the dim, cumbersome groundworms had long since vanished. Nothing was left now but the plants. The plants, and a dark presence that was growing ever stronger…  
~~~~

Note: I take no credit for the forests and the insects. These are the creations of the brilliant manga/anime mastermind, Hayao Miazaki. This particular creation comes from my favorite movie and one of my favorite manga series: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. I highly recommend you read/watch this; if you live in Marietta, GA the Merchant's Walk Public Library has volumes 1-4 and the movie.

Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it!


End file.
